Pollinators play a key role in ecosystem function and in agriculture, including thousands of native plants and more than one hundred U.S. crops that either need or benefit from pollinators. However, pollinators are in dramatic decline in Minnesota and throughout the country. The causes of the decline are not completely understood, but identified factors include loss of nesting sites, fewer flowers, increased disease, and increased pesticide use. Fortunately, there are known actions that can be taken to help counteract some of these factors.
5000 acres of grassland and wetland habitat will be enhanced or restored through this proposal to benefit upland dependent species on Minnesota lands open to public hunting. These include Wildlife Management Areas (WMA), Waterfowl Production Areas (WPA), and National Wildlife Refuges (NWR). We will accomplish this by working with our partners to follow best practices to conduct wetland restorations, conservation grazing, invasive tree removal, prescribed fire, and diversity seeding in the prairie, forest/prairie transition, and metro regions.
Minnesota has 9.5 million acres of public forest lands that play an important role in sustaining Minnesota’s environment and economy. The policies and programs used by public timber sale programs can impact post-harvest ecological conditions and have pronounced effects on the composition, structure, and productivity of the forest in the future. Additionally, timber harvesting revenues play an important role in economic activity, employment, and tax revenue.
Over 527,000 acres of unmanaged woodlands are being used for livestock grazing throughout Minnesota. Managing these grazed woodlands based on the use of best management practices can provide environmental and economic opportunities, including improved water quality, maximized forage production, and higher-quality timber. The best management practices involved are commonly used in other parts of the country with other types of ecosystems, but have not been widely adopted in Minnesota due to a lack of knowledge and experience with implementing them within the ecosystems of Minnesota.
To create an area that will improve the visual impact of heritage hand-crafted arts, art (drawing/painting) and culinary departments and to create a demonstration area. Demonstration area will have a stage constructed for programs and presentations that allows an audience to learn and be inspired to preserve the heritage of various arts.
The Stearns County SWCD Enhanced Shoreline Restoration, Infiltration and Protection Program has accelerated natural resource restoration projects in Stearns County. The project partners are assisting in recruiting landowners to implement shoreline restoration, erosion control and infiltration projects to protect and improve water quality as well as fish and wildlife habitat. We have prioritized projects based on location and impact. The site will be ranked as a higher priority if the it is located near a body of water that has been listed as impaired or has an approved TMDL.
1. To develop the aligned scope and sequence of the PreK-12 Dakota and Ojibwe language pathways, ensuring students are progressing towards language mastery. 2. To seek community input and foster strong support of Native language and culture programming at AIMS. 3. To develop a plan for AIMS which ensures that Dakota and Ojibwe language and culture are infused in all classrooms, and creates a sustainable heritage language program option.
We will generate genome sequences of bacteria growing in wastewater treatment bioreactors, allowing us to improve phosphorus and nitrogen removal from wastewater in Minnesota and to discover novel pharmaceutical compounds.
The Division of Parks and Trails is providing expanded cross-country ski, snowshoe and other winter activities in Minnesota state parks and recreation areas; Minnesota state trails; and Minnesota state forests. The division is re-establishing trails that had been closed due to a lack of funding; enhanced a number of existing facilities by brushing, mowing or improving trail condition prior to snowfall. The division has also enhanced existing facilities by maintaining additional parking lots or staging areas and, in the case of trails, by providing winter grooming.
This project used a combination of invasive tree removal, seeding, and prescribed fire to improve habitat quality, diversity, and productivity on public lands in Minnesota. As we lose habitat to conversion and encroachment, it is increasingly important to maximize wildlife production on existing permanently protected lands. Today's public lands are expected to function at the highest level for not only wildlife usability but now also for other non game rare and threatened species, pollinators, and for water quality efforts in the state.
This project will utilize a combination of wetland restoration, invasive tree removal, seeding, and prescribed fire, to improve habitat quality, diversity, and productivity on Wildlife Management Areas and Waterfowl Production Areas within the prairie and metro regions of Minnesota.
This proposal enhances 2,857 acres of open landscape habitat in the Northern Forest and Forest/Prairie Transition Regions for Sharp-tailed Grouse and other species. Enhancement work will take place on protected lands open to public hunting including Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs), National Wildlife Refuges (NWRs), state forest lands, Scientific Natural Areas (SNAs), and county lands. In addition, this proposal seeks to acquire and restore 743 acres of sharp-tail habitat in Lake of the Woods County to be transferred to the MNDNR.
A pilot project that will enhance connectivity within the Mississippi Flyway by linking urban neighborhood parks to the Mississippi River through restoration and implementation of identified habitat corridors.
Minnesota Trout Unlimited will enhance and restore degraded habitat for fish and diverse wildlife in and along priority trout streams located on existing public lands and conservation easements in the Metro area and southeast Minnesota. Increasing threats to these highly prized, yet relatively scarce, resources require accelerating habitat work to reduce the backlog of degraded stream reaches and buffer streams from the increased frequency and intensity of large rainfall and flood events.
6,870 acres of grassland and wetland habitat will be enhanced or restored through this proposal to benefit upland dependent species on Minnesota lands open to public hunting. These include Wildlife Management Areas (WMA), Waterfowl Production Areas (WPA), and National Wildlife Refuges (NWR). We will accomplish this by working with our partners to follow best practices to conduct wetland restorations, conservation grazing, invasive tree removal, prescribed fire, and diversity seeding in the prairie, forest/prairie transition, and metro regions.
This program enhanced 10,064.8 and restored 50.7 acres for a total impact of 10,115.5 acres by restoring wetlands, removing invasive trees, seeding prairies, prescribed burning, and installing infrastructure for conservation grazing. These practices took place on Waterfowl Production Areas (WPA's), and Wildlife Management Areas (WMA's) in the prairie and the forest/prairie transition regions of Minnesota.
In this phase of the Enhanced Public Lands - Grassland program, Pheasants Forever (PF) will enhance or restore 4,000 acres of upland and wetland habitat. The goal of this program is to improve habitat on existing Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs), Waterfowl Production Areas (WPAs), and National Wildlife Refuges (NWRs) that are open to public hunting. PF does this by working with agency partners to develop restoration and enhancement plans and hiring local, private contractors to complete work.
This program enhanced 2,491 acres of open landscape habitat for $578,200 and brought $12,000 in leverage. We did this by mowing/shearing brush, removing trees and installing firebreaks on WMA's, State Forest, and County owned land in the Norther Forest Region.
This project primarily involves the design and optimization of cost-competitive, thermally enhanced and compact heat exchanger systems for deep thermo-active building foundations for Minnesota's space heating and cooling industry
Project will identify characteristics of successful artificial bat roost structures. Data will be used to optimize bat
use and reproduction in these structures to improve survival of WNS impacted bats
Collect baseline information about lower trophic fish diets, the distribution and status of rare benthic fishes, and the movement patterns of large river fishes in the Minnesota River.
This program enhanced 10,583 and restored 198 acres for a total impact of 10,781 acres by restoring wetlands, removing invasive trees, seeding prairies, prescribed burning, and installing infrastructure for conservation grazing. These practices took place on Waterfowl Production Areas (WPA's), and Wildlife Management Areas (WMA's) in the prairie, metro and the forest/prairie transition regions of Minnesota. We exceeded our acre goals in every category, brought $45,768.51 in match funds, and are returning $833.50 in funds.
Minnesota Trout Unlimited will enhance and restore degraded habitat for fish and wildlife along coldwater streams with existing protections. We will utilize a crew of young people from diverse backgrounds to enhance habitat along Twin Cities area trout streams. Increasing threats to North Shore streams require accelerating work improving riparian forest habitat to improve stream flows and lower water temperatures, and buffering streams from larger, more frequent rainfall and flooding.
This project will preserve and celebrate the Anishinaabe Art & Culture through a series of meaningful workshops. Each workshop (12 total), is designed to engage 10-12 participants, providing them with valuable cultural experiences and knowledge.
The Asian American Business Resilience Network will enhance capacity building grant writing skills tailored for federal grants to effectively raise funding. This project has these key objectives: 1) train and assist staff on grant writing and reporting with emphasis on federal grant writing; 2) hire experts to conduct federal compliance training; 3) obtain consultation to develop, monitor, and communicate fundraising campaign including fundraising strategies and planning; 4) seek partnerships with organizations experienced in securing federal funding; 5) technology integration.
This project through field trips, community access events, museum-to-go, and free family passes, support programming that celebrates the rich and diverse community of Olmsted County.
Evaluate routing, safety, water management and other environmental and design issues of the Superior Hiking Trail and establish SHTA best practices methods for carrying out the resulting redesign plans.
The contractor will add more functionality to HSPEXP+ Hydrological Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF) tool and conduct 2016 HSPF Modeling Contractors Meeting
The goal of this project is to enhance the current version of the Enhanced Expert System for Calibration of HSPF (HSPEXP+) so that it can more easily and quickly be used for hydrology calibration, water quality calibration, generate reports and graphs.
The purpose of this project is to increase awareness of environmental stewardship practices by providing up to five subgrants to local partners to engage the public, provide education on conservation practices, and create projects, including rain gardens, vegetative buffers, and wetland restorations. Each subgrant will reduce the movement of sediment, nutrients, and pollutants to multiple water resources, retain water on the land, and increase environmental knowledge to individuals within Rice County.
The objective of the project is to integrate Division-wide stand-alone datasets into a single information system that eliminates redundancies and inconsistencies and better meets the business requirements of the Division. Once completed, the information system will serve as the authoritative source of MN State Parks and Trails data for updates, maintenance, and reporting, and will be poised to take advantage of emerging technologies.
Partners: Carleton College and Macalester College. This grant supported a conference in June 2012 to generate new scholarship on Minnesota's environmental history. The conference and a resulting book have the potential to significantly help Minnesotans understand their relationships with the environment and how economic, social, political and natural forces have shaped the state's environmental history. With this knowledge, citizens can better appreciate their surroundings and be better prepared to influence policy that enhances environmental sustainability.
Through this partnership, students from Macalester College are conducting a study to identify, select and assess historic content related to Minnesota's environmental history, using archival, archaeological and geospatial data at the Minnesota Historical Society.
